Embodiments of the invention relate to a digital photographing apparatus, a method of controlling the same, and a recording medium storing a program to implement the method, and more particularly, to a digital photographing apparatus capable of acquiring data associated with an image having a wide dynamic range and a high grayscale resolution, a method of controlling the digital photographing apparatus, and a recording medium storing a program to implement the method.
Generally, a digital photographing apparatus acquires data from light incident on an imaging device and stores the data in a storage medium or displays the data as an image on a display unit. Typically, the digital photographing apparatus automatically determines an optimal degree of exposure according to conditions such as the amount of light radiated during a photographing operation, and acquires image data from light that is incident on the imaging device at an appropriate exposure.
The quality of an image from image data generated by the imaging device depends upon a dynamic range and a grayscale. The larger a difference between the highest brightness and the lowest brightness of an image is, the wider the dynamic range of the image is. In turn, the wider the dynamic range of the image is, the more varied the levels of brightness used to represent the image. As an image has areas having various brightness levels due to gentle changes between brightness levels from bright areas to dark areas of the image, the grayscale of the image is good, that is, the image has a high grayscale resolution.
However, when the digital photographing apparatus acquires image data at a specific exposure, the brightness levels and colors of pixels which are displayed are limited to certain ranges. For example, an image from image data obtained during a long exposure is entirely bright and thus the lowest brightness of the image is higher than a specific brightness. An image from image data obtained during a short exposure is entirely dark and thus the highest brightness of the image is lower than the specific brightness. Thus, the dynamic range of the image is narrow. In particular, in a situation where a bright light source exists in some area of a dark indoor location such as in a backlight situation or the like, a greatly-bright area and a greatly-dark area co-exist and information about a subject and a grayscale are destroyed when image data is acquired.